Students and Faculty Involved in UT’s MBA Trip to Chile are Fine

All students and faculty involved in the UT’s full-time MBA program trip to Chile are fine and have been accounted for, the MBA program director confirmed this morning. All of the students and all but three of the faculty members involved in the international business experience had not yet arrived in Chile at the time of the earthquake.

Three faculty members arrived in Santiago, Chile, on Thursday and were in their hotel in the Central City downtown area at the time of the event. They felt the earthquake, but are fine. All of the students and the rest of the faculty began their trip Friday afternoon and were en route to Santiago when the earthquake hit. Those 67 students and four remaining faculty members were traveling on three different planes, all which were diverted to other cities en route due to the earthquake.

The full-time MBA trip is being rescheduled; all students and faculty are on their way back to Knoxville, according to college administrators.

The trip was set for Friday, Feb. 26 through March 6. The program activities were set to begin today.

The purpose of the trip is to familiarize the class with the complexities of doing business internationally through experiential learning. Students were expected to evaluate a specific business issue and meet with educators, government officials as well as with high-level leadership in both local and foreign companies to discuss how business is conducted in this specific global business environment.